Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – August 15, 2024
The holiness of the human body is central to today’s solemnity. Mary’s assumption “body and soul into heavenly glory” (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus) shows us that our earthly bodies are sacred and worthy indeed to be clothed with eternal life.
We need not reject our bodies to recognize ourselves and one another as holy. We can assert that our faith is concerned with both the temporal and spiritual realms. Because of the Incarnation, God’s grace given to humanity overflows precisely through our human bodies and beyond their earthly existence, whether before birth or after death.
Because of the Incarnation, God’s grace given to humanity overflows precisely through our human bodies and beyond their earthly existence, whether before birth or after death.
In Mary’s assumption, humanity receives a foretaste of what is promised to us in Christ’s resurrection, a gift first given when God entrusted himself with the frailty, power, wonder, and glory of the human body.
With Mary and Elizabeth, we rejoice today in what God has done and has promised to do for all generations.
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